| |
 Slumping sophomores Baseball's young stars must learn to adjust in Year 2
Posted: Sunday June 13, 1999 08:09 AM
You didn't hear much about the sophomore jinx last season after guys like Nomar Garciaparra and Scott Rolen had great years. But this season the sophomore slump is hitting harder than ever. Oakland's Ben Grieve is barely batting .200 after hitting .288 with 18 home runs and 89 RBIs last year on his way to the AL rookie of the year award. Tampa Bay's Rolando Arrojo had an ERA of 7.31 before going on the disabled list. He made the American League All-Star Team last year, starting the year 10-5 before cooling off. New York's Orlando Hernandez is giving up nearly five runs a game, more than 1 1/2 runs over last year's pace. And Montreal's Brad Fullmer was sent down to the minors with a .207 average. He hit .273 last season. So why are these guys struggling? Because Year 2 is a learning process. You've gone around the league once, and your opponents have figured out your weaknesses and how to exploit them. And now you have to adjust to their adjustments as quickly as possible. I didn't expect the sophomore jinx to hit Grieve as hard as it has. He has a good easy stroke and showed great discipline at the plate last year. But this season pitchers are using his aggressiveness to get him to chase pitches out of the strike zone. And the harder he tries to hit the ball, the worse it gets. Grieve has shown signs of breaking out of his slump recently because he's finally starting to relax and isn't trying to hit every pitch. He's gone back to the basics and is slowly getting his confidence back. But, trust me, it's not an easy thing for young players to do. I hit .258 my rookie season before pitchers found out I liked to chase the high strike. My sophomore year, I hit .211 while trying to learn how to lay off.
| |||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||
